FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) Assessment

Protecting the Privacy and Security of Student Records

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is a federal law that offers parents particular rights when it comes to protecting the privacy of their children’s education records. This data can consist of report cards, transcripts, disciplinary records, contact information and class schedules. In order to protect the sensitive records of our children the FERPA law was implemented to create a standard level of data security and privacy when dealing with student data.

Throughout CCSI’s FERPA assessment we’ll focus on how to comply with the regulation and validate student records are being properly governed with the federal guidelines in place for security and privacy. During this assessment we’ll take the following approach to evaluate your level of preparedness to the FERPA guidelines.

Key Benefits

Preparation with your annual FERPA assessment
Define legitimate protection of student information privacy
Training for appropriate staff on how to handle student data
Security and risk review on your current student data posture

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Our Approach

1

Policy & Procedure Creation and Review:

Student record amendment policies
Non-disclosure policy on student records
Student record release procedure
Record retention policy
Complaint filing and handling non-compliance
Training and awareness policy
Acceptable use policy
General data governance policy regarding student data

2

Training and Awareness:

Creation of a tailored plan of action for educating staff and faculty
Creation of “sign off” documentation for responsibility
What data is defined sensitive under FERPA guidelines
Ongoing procedure to have annual and new hires trained

3

Data Security and Privacy of Student Records:

Audit trails of data access to student records
Risk review of the systems and data protections controls in place
Review or create inventory of assets in the network
Authentication and access control review on systems housing FERPA data
Secured configurations of systems (Firewalls, IPS, Systems)
Patching and vulnerability management process and procedures
Mobile device security audit
Cybersecurity monitoring capabilities to detect incidents threatening FERPA data
Incident handling procedures during an event